Stilbe

In the principal tradition preserved in classical mythographic summaries, Stilbe is daughter of the river god Peneus and the Naiad Creusa, situating her in Thessalian riverine genealogy; an alternate account names Eosphoros as her father. By unions with gods and mortals she becomes progenitor of important lines: by Apollo she is said to have borne twin sons, Centaurus (ancestor of the Centaurs) and Lapithus (ancestor of the Lapiths); other traditions attribute to her sons such as Aineus (father of Cyzicus) and, in another variant, she is cited as possible mother of Autolycus by Hermes. In one account she is mother of the nymph Chariclo by Cychreus. These competing genealogies exemplify the localized and multi-authorial nature of Greek myth.

Ancient sources supplied in the surviving summaries provide no physical description or standardized iconography for Stilbe. She is named and located through parentage and offspring rather than by appearance. Her name's literal meaning, 'glittering' or 'gleaming' (from Greek stilbē), may be a literary epithet conveying radiance, but the sources do not record any depiction, costume, or visual attributes tied to her in cult or art.

No explicit supernatural abilities, magical functions, or habitual behaviors are recorded in the available material. Stilbe's role in the sources is genealogical and reproductive: she bears children to gods (notably Apollo, and in some variants Hermes) and mortals, thereby linking divine parentage to later human or semi-divine lineages (Lapiths, Centaurs, Cyzicus). The lack of described agency or powers in the sources is the basis for treating her as a named ancestral figure rather than an active magical agent.